Met Police downgraded double murderer Simon Levy to medium-risk before killings

The Metropolitan Police downgraded convicted sex offender Simon Levy to a medium-risk classification in August 2024, eight months before he murdered two women in Barnet and Enfield. Levy, 40, was sentenced to a whole-life prison term at the Old Bailey on 18 September 2025 for the killings of Carmenza Valencia-Trujillo in March 2025 and Sheryl Wilkins five months later, as well as the violent rape of a third woman.

Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that the decision to reduce Levy’s risk level was a mistake. The downgrade meant fewer police checks and less frequent contact. Rowley said the force had already apologised for its errors but defended the investigation, stating detectives had pursued the case but lacked sufficient evidence to charge Levy for Valencia-Trujillo’s death before Wilkins was killed.

Delays and missed evidence

Valencia-Trujillo’s body was found in Barnet in March 2025, but the Met did not classify her death as a murder or refer it to specialist homicide detectives until after Wilkins was killed in August. A pathologist could not determine a cause of death, which Rowley cited as a reason for the delay. However, the BBC reported that Levy’s semen was found on Valencia-Trujillo and his blood at the scene. CCTV showing Levy near her last known location was not reviewed by the local team.

The Met did not seek advice from the Crown Prosecution Service about Valencia-Trujillo’s death until after Wilkins’s murder. Rowley said the force only had enough evidence to pursue charges after combining both cases. A specialist homicide team attended the initial crime scene but recommended the case remain with local officers. No further contact occurred until Wilkins’s death.

Systemic failures and criticism

Rowley also admitted the Met was "too slow" to question Levy over a sexual assault on a female prison officer at HMP Brixton in April 2022. Levy was not charged until October 2025, by which time he had attacked 13 more women. Labour MP Jess Phillips said the second murder "could have been avoided had the state not failed". Mina Smallman, whose daughters were murdered in a separate Met failure in 2020, told the Today programme the force had not taken Valencia-Trujillo seriously because she was a sex worker.

Rowley attributed some failures to broader systemic issues, including automatic licence releases by the prison service. Levy was freed in February 2023 at the halfway point of his sentence for a 2021 sexual assault. The commissioner said the Met was monitoring 10,800 registered sex offenders in London, a number growing by 100 every three months, while the force is 4,000 officers smaller than four years ago.

What happens next

The Independent Office for Police Conduct is examining the Met’s management of Levy from his 2021 conviction to his 2025 arrest. The watchdog’s investigation will assess whether disciplinary action is warranted. The Met has not confirmed a timeline for the report’s publication. Families of the victims have called for independent oversight of police handling of high-risk offenders.